I So Want to Be You
by Deep Roller
Summary: *COMPLETED*Erik wants to switch lives with Raoul, but something goes horribly, horribly wrong for him. Find out what life in his...erm...new body is like, and find out WHY he let Raoul go. Did you ever want to be somebody else? Chapter 5 is up now!
1. One Simple Wish

I So Want To Be You?  
?y Deep Roller  
  
  
A/N: Believe it or not, I got the inspiration for this from Spongebob Squarepants. It's one of my favorite shows, and Plankton's my favorite character and well....It'll be cool. Ever wonder what it's like to be someone else? Did you ever wonder why Erik let Raoul go? And why Christine pulled the mask off? Was it really because he felt compassion? Was it really because she was insensibly curious? This story is set before that whole nasty torture chamber incident, when Christine is still torn between the two men and Erik is feeling jealous. Which is not that unusual, really.  
  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own them, I don't own them, I don't own them.  
  
  
The wind was howling outside the Opera House, screaming, really. It tore insistently on the gargoyles and flirted with the windows. The only person who could conceivably want to climb the stairs to the roof was a poor fellow hell bent on suicide, for they were a rocking, swaying, creaking nightmare. Papers and hats were whipped and batted about in the wind, tossed up for the approval of the heavens.  
  
The underground felt none of the harrying wind, only its usual, empty silence. The dark velvet was cut only by the soft sounds of the organ dancing across the water. Erik was dreary again, it had been three days since Christine's last visit, and he was beginning to wonder if she'd ever be back. Not that she could come in this wind, mind. It just got his guard up so much when she left. She was probably with that damn boy again, she always was. It made his blood rise to think of the vicomte, that dashing young man who always seemed so easy and confident around everyone.   
  
A small mrrowr from Ayesha brought him back to himself, and he petted her gently, smiling with a far off tenderness. Sensing she was not receiving his full attention, the cat leaped into his lap and began furiously kneading his knee, her claws making marks on the flesh beneath the fabric. "Ow! Okay, okay, I'm sorry, majesty." Erik said laughingly, gently itching her behind the ears with his fingertips. This gained approval, and the cat began to wash his fingers, softening them the way she softened her mice and rats. However loving her intentions were, they could not replace Erik's thoughts on the matter of the vicomte.   
  
"He gets all the attention, doesn't he darling?" Erik asked the cat, receiving a sable tail lashed through the air in answer. "He gets everything, everything he wants. Even Christine." Ayesha sat and stared up at Erik as though informing him that she could care less about what happened to that stupid girl. "Yes, I know you don't much like her, but I do. And I don't think she likes me very much. True, she came to see me, but she could be doing it out of pity, and I hate that!" The cat jumped down and marched away, as though bored with this discussion of love and hate. Erik sighed and returned to his music.  
  
That night he lay in bed thinking. Thinking about everything all at once, which put it all into a big swirling scope for him. What he wouldn't give to walk the streets without a barrier between the wind and his face, between the sun and his eyes. But what could he do? He could sit and stir in his own juices and just moan and complain about it for the rest of his life. Which might not be too long. Great, just great. He'd spend the rest of his time wishing he were someplace else. No, not someplace. For the first time in his long life, Erik actually wished he was someone he despised. He wished he were the vicomte de Chagny, more than anything in the world he wished that. Just for a day, he might be able to enjoy all the pleasures of normal men, and he could see Christine face to face, and be near her without feeling an inner part of her turning away or tensing with fear. "Just one day, and then I could be myself again, then I could die happy." He whispered into the dark, before he fell into an uneasy, dreamless sleep. The wind picked up outside, and began an almost unending tirade against the streets of Paris.  
  
  
When Erik woke the next morning, he had an inner sense of displacement. Something was very, very wrong. What could it be? There was light! So much light in his room. He'd have to see what the matter was. Still groggy, he didn't seem to comprehend very well, sleepily wondering if he was having a dream as he shook his head. Rolling onto his side, he felt for his mask, the first thing he did every waking day of his life. It wasn't there. Furthermore, he wasn't in his coffin, in the Opera House. Where was he? What was going on here? His heart beating furiously, Erik got up and jumped out of the bed, not bothering to look down. Windows! Windows were open, and he didn't have his mask. He began tearing around the unfamiliar room, his mind fixated on finding his most direly needed possession. Something else was different, he wasn't moving the way he usually did, he was somehow lighter...quicker. Perhaps he needed to wash, a splash of cold water would do him nicely, very nicely. And then, he noticed a mirror on one wall. Inexorable curiosity pulled him to look at himself in the mirror, something he hadn't done since the age of five or so. What met his eyes nearly made him double over. He reached out a hand, the person on the other side did the same. He opened his mouth, and so did they.   
  
"My God," he whispered in a voice that was definitely not his own. "My God what have I done? This...this is all wrong, this is HORRIBLE. I must be dreaming." He muttered, and then a little louder, "I AM dreaming. You can't be real, I am dreaming." He continued to move in front of the mirror, watching for the slip in the other side, the missed gesture. It didn't happen, what was before him copied him exactly. "You don't bleed in dreams," he said giddily, "you don't feel pain in dreams. I'll just...I'll just...aha!" Picking up a pair of small scissors from a nearby desk, he stabbed one finger, and the blood began to course down his arm and onto his nightclothes. "Damn." He muttered, sucking on his finger irately. Whatever this was, he was definitely awake. And whatever deity was playing this cruel trick on him sure had his full attention. He met the eyes of the person in the mirror and sucked in a deep, long breath. He couldn't believe what had happened, not yet. If he really, really wasn't dreaming, and he was pretty sure now that he wasn't, he had somehow turned into Christine Daae overnight. 


	2. Out on the Town

I So Want To Be You  
By Deep Roller  
  
  
A/N: Yes, there are a lot of questions to be answered, aren't there? ~tuts gently~ Well, you'll have to read on because I don't have the answers for you. I just kept thinking about the time I saw the Scooby Doo movie, and they all switched bodies, and Fred was in Daphne's body. ~grins~ "Hey, I'm Daphne. Whoah, I can lookit myself naked!" "Fred! Don't you dare! Hey, Fred's touching me! Quit it!" And then there was the time plankton switched lives with Mr. Krabs. That was hilarious. On a totally unrelated note, I'm wearing a Spongebob bandage that glows in the dark, and my arm cast is covered in signatures. Cool, huh?  
  
Disclaimer: If they were mine, I'd use them to take over the world. Well, I'd get Raoul drunk first and make him wear a giant diaper, but that's a personal choice.  
  
  
  
  
  
Panic crept over Erik then. Mind numbing panic that made him start shaking all over. This was absolutely the worst thing that had ever happened to him. What was he going to do now? He'd have to just hole up in this room until something else happened. But where exactly was he now? And what was going on?   
  
"Christine! Christine are you up there?" A coarse but somehow dreamy woman's voice floated up the stairs, causing Erik to jump eight feet in the air.   
  
"Yes?" He answered querulously, shocked to hear Christine's voice issuing from his throat. It was the last barrier to this unreal dream. ~It really has happened, then~ He thought, ~I am Christine...but who in hell is downstairs?~  
  
"Christine, the vicomte's here to see you!!" The voice called up, incredibly insistent now. "Come down at once, girl!" Erik slapped his forehead repeatedly, growling and muttering incredibly potent curses.  
  
"No, no,no,no! Damn!" He repeated, almost as a mantra. But steeling himself, since he had a feeling the owner of the voice downstairs would come and drag him if he didn't come, he took an incredibly deep breath and opened the door. Walking down the stairs in bare feet and a white night-dress thing, he felt incredibly embarrassed and he wanted more than anything in the word to cover his face, even though he had seen in the mirror there was no need. By the time he got down the stairs, he was blushing furiously, and when he saw Raoul at the foot of some older woman's rocking chair, he couldn't control his dark scowl.  
  
"Why, Christine!" Raoul exclaimed, not sure what to be shocked at first, the fact that she scowled when she first saw him upset him terribly. "You're...you're bleeding!"  
  
"And not properly dressed, go on upstairs and change this instant! This boy is here to take you out on the town, and you will respect him. Now go!" Erik's hands flew to his mouth and he shook his head, his blush going dead pale in six seconds flat.   
  
"Oh, no, no I can't! I don't want to!" He shouted, his hands shaking.  
  
"Child, you don't look so good. Fresh air will do you nicely, look at your paleness."   
  
"What's the matter, Christine my love? You don't want to go out into the park with me?"  
  
"Don't you DARE call me that!" He shrieked in a panic, amused in the depths of his mind at the absurdness of this voice. "I am not your love!" A look of absolute hurt and horror came across Raoul's face, and he turned away sadly.  
  
"Christine! No more of this, you go up right now and get dressed, you are going." Momma Valerius chided. Erik, still horrified beyond belief at this new twist, raced upstairs, still muttering to himself.  
  
Once inside the room, he shut the door and stood on the other side of it, absolutely shaking. He would have to....oh dear, it wasn't right, it just wasn't right! He couldn't bring himself to do it, but there was no other way. Or was there? What if he just dressed OVER the nightgown? That would work, that would work! It didn't look too different from the three dresses hanging in the closet. He picked one up and looked at it with all the concentration of Galileo pondering a new star. How, how could he get into it? Step in, he supposed. So he unfastened the dress and stepped into it, pulling it over the nightgown and trying to reach around the back to fasten it. He reached, and he leaned back, and he fell over, right on his back. But he couldn't fasten the blasted dress. Rolling around on the floor and cursing, he finally managed to fasten it, and he found it incredibly tight around his waist. "How in God's name does she BREATHE in this thing?" He muttered savagely, looking in the mirror. "But it does look remarkably good....oh, stop that Erik!" He chided himself. But now, now the hair was a mess. There was a brush on the table by the mirror. It looked simple enough....  
  
Raoul was waiting downstairs, and after a bit of concern on hearing shouts and scrabbles in Christine's room, he was relieved to see her coming down the stairs. But something was even more wrong than the first time she had emerged. Her nightgown was visible under her dress, and her hair was a huge nest of tangles, the brush dangling from one twisted lock of it. "Christine? Is that...your nightgown? And the brush?" Christine quickly swiped the brush out of her hair, exclaiming with a loud yell when it tore out the chunk it was attached to.  
  
"Don't question me." She growled at him. "I'm going out with you, aren't I?"   
  
"Is something wrong?" He asked, completely puzzled.  
  
"I'm not myself today. Can we just get on with this? Please?" Her attitude towards him was remarkably distant, and she was behaving so strangely. It made him wonder if something really was the matter. And he had thought the Valerius woman was a nutcase. He took her to the park, and they took a walk, though every time he tried to get near her, she'd jump away and start walking. There was also that bizarre fancy of hers for walking in the shade.   
  
"I'll take you back to the House now, no doubt you need to prepare for opening night." The reaction was instantaneous.  
  
"God!! I forgot all about that! The Opera House! Who's watching the Opera House?!" She positively tore at his collar, her eyes ablaze. "You have to get me there RIGHT NOW." Stunned but unwilling to disobey her, he ordered the cab to take them to the Opera House as quickly as it could. When they got there, he let her out.   
  
"I will escort you inside, if that is agreeable." He said, feeling slightly uneasy about her.   
  
"No, no, I can walk in there myself. Thanks all the same." She said distractedly, heading for the huge building. Raoul grabbed her hand and kissed it, not at all prepared for the smack that landed him on his feet.  
  
"Never do that again!" She screeched before dashing headlong into the Opera House, tripping on her skirts every now and again. Totally confused, and now with a stinging cheek, Raoul climbed back into the cab and headed home.  
  
  
  
"Oh gross! How disgusting!" Erik muttered, holding the offending hand out in front of him until he reached Christine's dressing room, flinging the door open and rushing to the water pitcher her maid had left out for her. Splashing the hand furiously with water, he scrubbed it with his other hand until it turned bright red. "This is not what I wanted at all!" He said, looking up at the ceiling in a tortured sort of way. "I want out, I want out!"   
  
"Out of what, child?" A voice from behind the mirror asked suddenly, making him jump straight up again. He turned, a look of utter disbelief in his eyes. This was way, way too much.  
  
"You can't be! You're not...you're not ME! I'm me, but I'm here!" The voice, his ~real~ voice, came from the mirror, a note of concern jingling in it.  
  
"Christine, are you feeling alright? You don't seem yourself today."  
  
"I'm not...I'm not...I don't need this today." Erik said weakly. "I don't know what's going on, but I sure don't like it. Who are you?"  
  
"Why, you know me, I am the Angel of Music!"  
  
"Don't give me that, please." Erik had meant for his voice to be resonant with indignant anger, but it came out weak and despaired.  
  
"I'm beginning to think you don't want to visit me, Christine. Why don't you visit?" The voice was growing slightly angry now.  
  
"Look, I'll come down there right now. I know the way...by now, will you just let me pass?" Obediently, the wires began to turn, and Erik found himself staring himself in the face. Then, the other Erik grabbed his wrist and gently tugged him forward. "This is too surreal." He murmured to himself as he wandered down the corridors to the boat. When they got to his house, Erik tripped again while trying to step out of the boat, ending up in the lake. "DAMN!" He screamed, soaked to the bone in lake water. The other Erik seemed shocked at this.   
  
"I've never heard you use that kind of language before, Christine." He said, hauling Erik up out of the water. "Come, I have something you can change into."  
  
"I don't want to change, I'll stay soaked, thank you." Erik grumbled, sodden and miserable and half inclined to rip his own throat out with his nails. Or the throat of his other self, anyway. Shrugging, the other Erik led him into the house and motioned him to sit down.   
  
"I'll make some tea, I'll use the samovar." The other Erik asserted, stepping out. Ayesha made her entrance then, strolling calmly into the room like Cleopatra's own sibling. Smiling, Erik reached out to pet her, scoop her up, anything.   
  
"Ayesha, darling!" He said, trying to get her attention as he picked her up. His only reward was a huge claw mark down his face. He dropped the cat, who looked at him savagely. "You too, huh? Can this day get any worse?" And then the other Erik came back with the tea. He took one look at Erik and gasped.   
  
"Child, your face! Did Ayesha scratch you?"  
  
"My fault, my fault." He muttered, taking a cup of tea and sipping it. It tasted so incredibly bland that he nearly spat it out. "Does the samovar not work....Erik?" He asked, the words strange on his tongue, though he tried for Christine's tremulous voice.   
  
"Oh, it's a bit on the fritz, I suppose." The other said idly, waving a languid hand through the air. "But now, I must do some composing. You just sit right down here, then and calm yourself. I really ought to get some compresses, that will be a nasty scratch."  
  
"I'm fine, really. Your music is more important." Erik assured him, sitting quietly on the couch and looking around. Ayesha looked at him warily before striding off with her tail in an indignant angry line. After awhile, Erik's mind began to wander as his wet seat sank into the couch. ~If I'm Christine, which I am, and I'm also myself, where is Christine? Could she be someone else? Or are there two of us? Well, I'd better stay away from that line of thought, I'll go completely mad. I wonder what I look like now, I haven't seen myself since I was five. But...if I know me, and I do, I'll certainly get mad. Grief, I'll give myself a heart attack. But I just want to see. Besides, it's me, anyway. I'd only be yelling at myself.~   
  
With that in mind, Erik crept up to the figure playing on the organ, or rather punching out tones on the keys, and wiggled his own fingers in anticipation. He could do it now, he thought. There was really nothing left to lose, this day was already insane. His fingers found the hook of his mask and it was off before he could say boo. ~Boy, no wonder I don't look at myself often.~ He said mildly, before the other Erik lunged at him, their eyes locking in a strange, weird meeting. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" The other Erik roared angrily, tearing around and trying to reach Erik. Erik wasn't stupid, and slipped trying to scrabble away. The other was on him in a second, pinning him down and making him flinch and plea for anyone to save him now. He was absolutely terrified now, sure that he was, in fact, going to be killed. "Erik, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" His attacker roared, causing Erik's eyes to go wide.  
  
~No, it can't be....~ He thought, looking into his suddenly confused assailant's face. Blinking, he squinted and shook his head in puzzlement. "Did you just call me Erik?" He asked softly. The other quickly sat up and backed away. Sensing his upper hand, Erik got up and advanced on the other person. "How did you know? How did you know it was me?"   
  
"Because...because...oh, Erik, it's all a mess! I wished for this!" The other said, the voice suddenly bursting with despair.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
A/N: Who could it be? Well, you'll find out soon enough. Fifty million dollars to the person who gets it right. Heck, I'm still trying to figure it out! ~_^ 


	3. Cat Fights

I So Want to Be You  
By Deep Roller  
  
  
A/N: Well, a couple weird things happened to me yesterday. One, I found a bird! A little cockatiel was huddled under the wheel well of my car yesterday afternoon, perched on my tire. It was raining and I was coming out of class when I saw this little flash of gray and white. I got the bird home by wrapping it in the towel I used for my First Aid class, and now it's my birdie! No one at the campus was missing one. I named it Plankton, after well...Plankton! Hee hee! And I think it's a he-bird, he's making my other one jealous. And also yesterday I chewed six pieces of gum at once. It was a record.  
  
Disclaimer: No! NOOOOO! They aren't my characters, I'm not making a profit, please don't sue me. Please? I'll give you a puppy if you don't....  
  
  
  
The other Erik began to sob, the sound rather unsettling in Erik's ears. ~I sound like that?~ He thought, blinking as he studied the other person. "But...but....wait a minute." He held out a hand, shaking his head, which made his tangled mop of hair slap him in the face. "Urgh, I'm sick of this." He muttered before trying to get his thoughts straight. This was so confusing, and who was he talking to, anyway? "Who're you? You're certainly not me, and how do you know that I'm me??" He asked, sitting back and folding his hands to wait for an answer.  
  
"Well...that's kind of hard to explain because...because you're not going to believe it when you hear it." The other said hesitantly, looking as though they had done something wrong.  
  
"After the morning I've had, I'm ready to believe just about anything." Erik replied grimly, looking down at his soaking dress and grimacing. "So tell me, who exactly are you? Who is it that's in my body? I'd like to know because even though it's not the best looking, it's the only one I've got left to me. Until now, that is." He added with a wry smile.  
  
"Well...think whiskers, is all I have to say." Shrugging, the other Erik looked impatiently at Erik to see if he could figure it out.  
  
"Whiskers? What? You don't mean...." He trailed off, looking at himself in disbelief. Hardly daring to speak his conjecture out loud, when it did come it came as a sort of squeak. "Ayesha?" But the nod from the other Erik, Ayesha, he supposed, confirmed it. This was just too strange, almost too much for Erik. He shook his head again, earning another slap from his hair and then looked up. "But how did you know I would be HERE? And you wished to be me? You wished for all this?"  
  
"No, no, no." Ayesha shook her head sadly. "I didn't wish for this at ALL. I wished for...never mind, that's not important. I knew who you were when you fell in the lake," this came with a sort of misty smile, "no one curses like you, Erik."  
  
"But I think what you wished for does matter. If it wasn't for this, it had something to do with...with all this." Erik protested, treating the whole scenario as though it was perfectly normal. "Because I wished for something too. But what was yours?" Ayesha looked down at her hands, head drooping on her shoulders as she mumbled something. "What was that?" Erik cocked his head curiously, trying to hear. "I didn't catch that."  
  
"I wanted mhyhkghhknnnd." She mumbled again, a little louder.  
  
"Ayesha, I still can't hear you, please, tell me." He urged, his voice carrying a whine to it that was never present in his old form. He suddenly wanted nothing more than to be himself, only himself. This was ridiculous.   
  
"I wanted to be Christine!! You happy?! That's what I wished for! I wished to be her!" She roared, the anger amplifying her voice to carry over everything. Then she began to sob quietly, the noise striking that odd chord in Erik. He just sat still and let her go on sobbing for a few moments. Then he asked the question.  
  
"But why, Ayesha? Why would you want to be her?"   
  
"To you I'm just an animal, something to be petted and talked to to stave off loneliness. Oh, you'll treat me okay, give me a collar or feed me. And for awhile that was enough, that was what I wanted. No one was there to take you away from me. But then SHE showed up." Ayesha hissed, the eyes behind the recently reapplied mask turning to slits. "And you pushed me away. Whenever you started thinking about her, I was just getting pushed away. Like last night, all I wanted was to make you happy, to make you stop thinking about her. But it didn't work. All you talk about when you're around me is Christine anymore, and it was making me sick. I wanted to be her, so she'd have to be the cat and I could make you happy." Resigned, Ayesha sighed. "I may be an animal, Erik, but I can see what she's doing to you. She's tearing you up inside, and...I don't like it. But it went all wrong. All wrong!" Erik was stunned, this was new to him, his cat talking to him through his own voice and body while he was stuck in the body of the woman he had come to obsess over.   
  
"Ayesha, don't cry, don't cry. Yes, this is a bit of a mix up but..." His thoughts suddenly moved toward the third party involved in this. "Where did she go? Is she the cat?"  
  
"SEE?!! All you think about is what happened to HER!!" Ayesha shouted and jumped up, ready to go at Erik's throat again. From where he sat, and from the fact that his new body was smaller and weaker than the one that he used to have, Ayesha formed his body into an incredibly imposing and scary figure. ~I miss being me, I miss being scary sometimes.~ He thought to himself before he leaped off the couch and moved a few paces away.  
  
"Calm down, Ayesha, I just wanted to see who else was involved and..." Seeing the suddenly nervous look in Ayesha's eyes, he moved a step closer to her. "Is she in your body?" He asked with slow, almost poisonous malice.   
  
"Her? No, she's not in my body, no way. She's been shouting all morning though, I locked her in the closet because I was sick of hearing her. It's lovely being so big and strong, I can't understand why anyone would want to trade this body. You have FINGERS and thumbs. Thumbs are my favorite." She said, looking at the pair of long slender hands in childlike wonder, wiggling them and laughing merrily.   
  
"I'm glad you like it, Ayesha, but who exactly did you lock in the closet? Christine, I know, but..." Sighing, Ayesha led him to the closet and opened the door.   
  
"She's been thrashing all morning." Ayesha said almost boredly, rapping on the closet framework with one hand. "I LOVE these things..." she murmured to herself while Erik could only gape.  
  
Nadir was bound and gagged, kicking and growling in muffled noises. "NADIR?! Christine's turned into the daroga?" He asked, trying to untie her. "You hold still!" He said fiercely when she kept twisting her head back and forth. Her eyes went wide and when he had gotten the gag off, he got bitten. "YOUCH! What was THAT for?!" He asked, staring at her.  
  
"That's for letting that...that cat do all this to me!" She said indignantly. Even though she was using Nadir's voice, he sure could tell it was Christine in there. "I've been in here all morning, since I woke up and...I thought at first I had walked here in my sleep, and then she locked me in the closet."  
  
"How did you know it wasn't me? And how do you know who I am?" Erik asked, completely puzzled.  
  
"Well, I woke up in this little room off the cabin, and I heard the cat thundering around, shouting about thumbs. At first I thought you had gone totally crazy and abducted me, or I had come to visit you and forgotten, but then I knew it was the cat because she kept saying 'I'm not that puny cat anymore.' And then she asked aloud for you, and I went in there, and looked in the mirror, and I must have screamed because the next thing I know I've got a gag and I'm in the closet..." She trailed off, and then looked at him suspiciously. "What have you been doing as me?"  
  
"Nothing to get concerned about. You really ought to wear shorter, looser dresses. I don't know which is worse, having my breath shut off or tripping over every bump in the road." Erik looked sullen at her remark on abduction. "Why would I abduct you, anyway? That's got to be the stupidest thing you've ever said." When he saw the hurt look on her face, he shook his head. "It's just been a very long day, Christine, a very long, CONFUSING day. I don't know how to get out of it but....the cat!" He exclaimed suddenly, his eyes lighting with a sudden thought.  
  
"Erik? Has it been worse than you thought? Are you losing it?"   
  
"No, no, nothing of the sort child." He said quickly, looking around for the cat. "Where is the cat?" He asked, getting up and moving around in slow circles.  
  
"She's right there, Erik, what are you rambling about?"  
  
"Not THAT cat, Ayesha, where did your body go?" Erik asked, in a frenzy now. Ayesha shrugged, and Erik began to roam around the flat, looking and looking. He found the cat asleep on a small chair, and he whispered. "Nadir? Is it you?" The cat's eyes snapped open and it swung it's head around to look at Erik full in the face. The only answer he got was a sullen "mrowwwr." Scooping up the cat and keeping well out of range of claws, he brought it to where the other two were. Christine was still tied up and Ayesha was now examining her new toes, much to Christine's estrangement. Erik blinked, and suddenly everything was just completely hilarious. Before it had been hectic, nerve wracking, surreal, and horrifying, but now it was absolutely the funniest thing in the entire world. He was in a woman's body, the only woman he ever really loved, and she was in the body of perhaps his very best friend. His cat had taken his body and was now sitting on the floor and wiggling his toes, and he was cradling a cat who was certainly someone other than a cat.   
  
"What is so funny?!" Christine demanded irately when the bouts of laughter burst from him in waves, he began laughing so hard he started to shake, and the constraining dress shortened his breathing. The noise came out as a sort of half hysterical, half wheezing sound. The cat looked at him sullenly, flexing its claws. When he could calm down, he shut his eyes and took a deep breath. Ayesha, oblivious to everything, frowned heavily at the cat, her eyes lighting with distaste. ~Could she hate herself as much as I did? Did, Erik? Are you saying you don't? Maybe...Good grief, you have lost it!~ His inner conversation just made him give up one last chuckle before he set the cat down.  
  
"I'm going to ask you again, are you Nadir? Nod once for yes." The cat nodded. "Why you little beast, you scratched me!" Erik suddenly burst out before anything else. Nadir merely raised his back, the hairs lifting slowly.  
  
"My face! Look what he's done to my face!" Christine shrieked. Nadir leapt onto her lap and growled low. "Don't get me started, you. If my hands weren't tied behind my back I'd throw you across the room." She said fiercely.  
  
"Not to my body you little usurper!" Ayesha thundered, rising in her bare feet to advance on Christine. Nadir scowled and slashed Ayesha's foot, causing her to hop on one foot. Erik sighed and watched the spectacle sadly. This was going nowhere, and there might not be a way to stop any of it. That was what worried him the most. Looking at the three fighting, he wondered morosely if they were all stuck like this for the rest of their lives.  
  
"This couldn't get any worse, could it?" Erik muttered, rising to his feet and then slipping on the dress length in the puddle of water he had made himself. Great, just great.  
  
  
  
  
A/N: Next chapter coming soon. Well, I did do some foreshadowing, but it was really really hard to see, but now it will be easy to see! I would have extended the switch to more, but I don't think I could keep track of more than this....Thanks to all those reviewers! You make my pineapples fruitier! ~_^ 


	4. Wrong Turn

I So Want to Be You  
By Deep Roller  
  
  
A/N: I actually got this all sorted out, but I'm still traipsing along with details, so I hope you'll forgive me. This is one highly illogical take on the whole final scene of the book (Kay's book, though I dunno why she left the scorpion and the grasshopper out...artistic licensing I guess) from what could have been the case.  
  
  
Disclaimer: Hmmm...a profit you say? No, my only profit is from mucking stalls and taking care of my neighbor's canaries. Not from these characters, although the canaries are named Christine and Phantom. But they're just canaries, so don't sue!  
  
  
  
  
  
Sitting in a puddle of water and tangled up in the dress, Erik growled to himself as he watched everyone fighting. What could he do now? Would this whole blasted mess ever get sorted out? Why in hell did he make his stupid wish anyway? But first he had to get rid of this horrible din of noise. And he had to stop Nadir from turning his feet into raw hamburger. "Quiet!" He yelled, but no one seemed to hear. Ugh, this was frustrating, this timid little voice wasn't effective at all, not even when he shouted. Okay, let's try again. "QUIET!!!!!" He roared this time, and that earned him everyone's attention.  
  
"You really don't have to shout, Erik." Christine said civilly, blinking. She had gotten one hand free and it was locked around Ayesha's ankle, ready to trip her up if necessary. Ayesha had hold of Nadir, and they were all frozen in place now.   
  
"Could everybody please just stop bickering for three insignificant seconds? Does it occur to anyone else in this mental asylum that we aren't who we're supposed to be?! Does ANYONE have a plan for getting back?" Erik asked quietly, trying to get up and slipping back down. "Oh, damn this stupid dress!!" He growled, getting to his knees and crawling to the closet door frame to pull himself back up. Slipping again, he banged his forehead on the closet's wooden frame, causing it to bleed a little, and when he felt it with one hand, he could sense the bump. Oh, how lovely, scratches and a bruise. Perhaps he wouldn't have to get his old self back, pretty soon Christine's face would resemble his own at the rate he was going.  
  
"I don't have any idea of how to do it." Ayesha said with a shrug, stepping back out of Christine's hold. Christine shook her head solemnly, but Nadir became agitated. Meowing, he walked to stand in front of Erik, who just stared at him curiously.   
  
"Nadir, d'you have a plan?"  
  
"Mrrrworrr. Mrrror, miaow." Nadir articulated, frustration almost visible in his cat eyes. He turned around in circles and jumped up on the near by writing desk. Following, Erik and Ayesha left Christine tied in the closet as they watched Nadir trying to write out his plan.  
  
"Frustrating with no hands to write with, isn't it?" Ayesha said almost mockingly. "Bet you wish you could talk, too." Giving her a dark look, Nadir dipped one paw in ink and tried to smear a letter out.   
  
"It looks like a G to me." Erik said, studying Nadir as he wrote.  
  
"That's such a messy way to write, and ink is so horrible to get off the paws. That red stuff you use tastes so nasty." Ayesha said, making a face and sticking out her tongue. Nadir continued to write, and before long he had spelled out his plan in messy, cat smeared ink.   
  
"Go get the boy? But...why?" Erik looked extremely puzzled. Nadir merely stamped a paw on his plan, blue eyes stubborn. "Daroga, where are you going with this?" With an audible mrrowr of frustration, Nadir wrote a bit more on his ink smeared piece of paper.  
  
'The boy may be able to help sort this out. I have a feeling he's involved somehow.'  
  
"But I can't go get him!" Erik protested, holding his hands up. "Look at me, I'm a horrible mess, I look like something the cat dragged in."  
  
"I never drag anything in!" Ayesha protested, grumbling. "And I can't go get him, I'm sure he absolutely hates my guts, I don't want to be shot at. I don't think he'd follow a cat, so who's left...?" All at the same time, they turned to Christine. After a moment, she sighed heavily and nodded acquiescence.   
  
"Fine, I'll go get Raoul and bring him back. I don't know where you're going with this, but whatever gets me out of these ropes is fine!" Kicking the door frame, she sighed sadly. "I can't believe I'm doing this. I can't believe any of this at all." Going over to her, Erik untied the ropes and stood her up. Looking her straight in the eyes, his gaze was stern.  
  
"You have to bring him down here without cluing him in to what's happening. For God's sake, ACT like the daroga, don't call him Raoul, call him the vicomte, and tell him whatever it takes to get him down here, okay?" She nodded, and then began to giggle. "Oh no, not you too."  
  
"It's just....I've never seen myself this stern before!" She said while giggling.  
  
"Oh, get over it Christine." Erik muttered, giving her a gentle push to get going. "We've got to try to puzzle this out while you're gone. Get moving!" Christine hurried down the steps and out to the lake. Grabbing the boat, she rowed across swiftly, reaching the other end in record time. Scrambling out, she dashed up the flights of steps and the corridors to find the outside.  
  
Raoul was combing the Opera House for Christine. He wanted to see how she was feeling, she had been behaving so strangely today. It wasn't like her, and he wanted to make sure she was alright and not delirious or sick or anything. He inquired at the manager's office, but they were busy dealing with Carlotta, who seemed to have developed some sort of rash. Her screeches drove Raoul out into the foyers, where he called and called for Christine. Suddenly, a figure emerged out of the shadows, looking a bit harried and quite relieved to see him. It was the Persian! He had heard of this fellow from the talk of ballet girls, but had never seen him up close.  
  
"You must come with me, monsieur le vicomte, you must hurry!" The Persian said, coming up to his side, a note of urgency definitely ranking in his words. Alarms suddenly clanged in Raoul's head and he almost hesitated to speak.  
  
"What's the matter? Why do you want me?" He asked, hoping it had nothing to do with Christine.  
  
"Your lady friend....she's..." Christine, when faced with Raoul, was at a loss for words, but Erik's intonation stayed with her. Whatever it took to get Raoul down there, to get them all back in their own bodies. "He's taken her, monsieur, Erik has taken your lady friend and is...keeping her with him. Follow me, I will take you to them!" Quite proud of herself for such a performance, Christine knew she had him now. He was sure to follow her now. "You must come with me, or we'll be too late to stop it!" Raoul nodded and followed Christine as she led the way down into the depths of the Opera once more. But it began to get so dark that she couldn't see her hand in front of her face, and she started to lose her way. Every so often, she'd hold her hand up in front of her eyes to check visibility.  
  
"Forgive me sir, but why are you doing that? Raising your hand like that?" Raoul ventured as they trudged through the subterranean world of the opera underground. ~Don't let him know you're losing your way, act like the daroga. Ahah, I have it!~  
  
"You must keep your hand here, at the level of your eyes or else you will be the...the next victim of his lasso. Do this, yes, just like that." She said, adjusting his arm and nodding. She was pretty good at this! They were getting closer, she could tell by the smell of the lake. But wasn't there an easier way? To the left, she remembered something about going left. Or had he told her never go left? No, she was sure it was safe to go, so she led Raoul left, glad to see a little light shedding on her hand now.   
  
Inside, Erik, Nadir, and Ayesha were deliberating on the situation. Well, Erik and Ayesha were, and Nadir was sitting up and watching them.   
  
"What did you wish for, Erik? You never told me." Ayesha said, curious. Erik was sitting in a chair, idly playing with the rope that Ayesha had used to bind Christine. He was tying his wrists together and seeing how long it took him to escape, a little trick he had picked up in Persia. It was rather fun, actually.   
  
"I wished...well, I wished to be someone else too. But you aren't going to like it very much, so I'll refrain from mentioning it. Aha!" He exclaimed, slipping his hands free. "I'm not challenging myself enough," he muttered. "I need someone else to tie this knot, would you do the honors?" He held his wrists out, giving Ayesha the rope.  
  
"Why do you want me to do this?" She asked, a puzzled look in her eyes.  
  
"It helps me think when I've got a problem, and besides, I like proving that I can get out of things. It's much too easy with these skinny little wrists, though. Tie that knot TIGHT." Ayesha complied, tying the knot around Erik's wrists. "Now, to make a real challenge, since I have nothing else to do until that stupid boy gets here, tie my feet too. Go on, there we go."  
  
  
Christine was in BIG trouble. She sure had lost her way this time. They had gone around the lake on the left side, but now she had no clue how to get to Erik's flat. There was a little room up ahead, with a small steel door. Perhaps that led the way. Beckoning to Raoul, she led him inside. The door slammed shut behind them with a loud BANG! That caused Christine to jump ten miles out of her skin. "Oh...no..." She said, looking around at the shining walls of the torture chamber. "This isn't good. Not good at all." Raoul, catching her feeling, began to beat and bang on the walls, shouting. "It's no use! We can't get out!" Christine muttered, sighing and sitting down. This was just fabulous, what was going to happen next?  
  
"I see a little window, maybe if you boost me up, I can see what's going on in there." Raoul ventured, pointing upwards. Christine followed his arm and almost cheered. If they saw them, they could get out.   
  
"Alright, here, stand on my shoulders and see what you can." She bent down, and Raoul climbed onto her shoulders, peering into the window. His eyes went wide as he saw a tall dark an in a cape tying Christine up by the ankles, her wrists already bound.   
  
"My God, you were right! He's got her tied up! We have to get out of here!" Christine was so shocked she moved backwards, causing Raoul to fall down.  
  
"Tied up? But why...?" Christine began to feel a numbing sort of panic.  
  
"And it looks like she's got a pretty big bump on her head, too. And scratches. What is going ON in there?" Raoul asked. Christine had a brilliant inspiration then, and she motioned Raoul back over by the window.   
  
"I want to see what's going on, if you'll let me up. Maybe...maybe he'll listen to me." Christine said, climbing up on Raoul's shoulders. She rapped on the window fiercely, shouting. "HEY! SOMEONE! GET over here!!" She took a look at the scene. Erik was indeed tied up at wrists and ankles, but he was doing his little Persian rope thing that helped him think. She had seen him do it a few times, and she knew by his wiggling legs that he was almost through. She winced when she saw the bump on his forehead, it looked worse than it had before when he had hit it. Ayesha was standing next to him, laughing happily. Craning, she could see that something was tickling her feet. She tried to get someone's attention by rapping again. Raoul was starting to get tired, and they needed out. Ayesha came to the window at the second rapping. Her voice was somewhat muffled by the glass, but she could hear it pretty well.  
  
"Did you bring him? Is he here?"  
  
"Yes," Christine hissed, nodding fiercely.   
  
"Good! Finally this can end!" Ayesha thundered, finishing with a burst of near mad laughter. From underneath, Raoul shuddered. Something was going to happen, and from the insane laughter of their captor, it wasn't going to be good.  
  
"What is tickling you?" Christine asked, peering out and trying to peer over.  
  
"It's this blasted thread that I can't get loose." Ayesha laughed again, shaking her head.  
  
"Listen, I need you to get us out of here. Can you do that?" Christine asked, praying silently.  
  
"Oh, sure, I can get you out. No problem. Just get down and relax, I'll get you out."   
Raoul, who hadn't been able to hear the words of the person on his shoulders, could hear Erik's proclamations loud and clear.  
  
"He's letting us out? Is Christine okay?"  
  
"I think so, and yes, he's letting us go. Oh please..." Christine sent another prayer that Ayesha knew what she was doing.   
  
Up above, Erik had near gotten free of the ropes around his wrists, and was working at his ankle wrists. He was muttering to himself about the significance of Raoul's presence, thinking it had something to do with having all involved in the wish nearby. He didn't hear Ayesha move to the controls for the chamber. At the controls, Ayesha was agonizing. Which one opened the door? It could be the red lever, or the brass knob, or any one of a dozen little things. Most, she thought, probably changed the angles of the mirrors, but which one freed the door? Making a choice, she pulled a conspicuous lever and hoped. When she didn't hear a door opening, she ran to the window and peered in. They were still trapped, and she could hear Christine shouting one thing.  
  
"You just made it hotter in here!!! There's no way out! The temperature is rising!!"   
  
"Damn," she muttered, and taking a deep breath she went to go get Erik.  
  
  
  
A/N: Now, more is coming, but this takes puzzling out and research people. I hope you enjoy.... ~_^ 


	5. The Longest Day, The Weirdest Feeling

I So Want to Be You  
By Deep Roller  
  
  
A/N: My family is insane, INSANE I tell you. My mother lets my brother get a scorpion, but I can't have a rat. I ask you, is that fair? And it finally stung someone by the way, it stung my sister on her ankle. She made it mad because she picked it up by the pincer. If you want an idea of its length, it's about as long as two hands spread flat, and it kinda grows on you, really. You learn to love it. Anyway, I also have another plot bunny in the works, which is good...or maybe not. Has anyone else read Susan Kay's other book, Legacy? It's GREAT! And so, so funny. Well, I'll be a good girl and whip out this chapter. Hmm...I wonder what's going on now.....  
  
  
Disclaimer: The only thing that's mine is the twisted, weird mind that came up with this scheme in the first place.  
  
  
  
Erik watched Ayesha approach him from the window of the torture chamber, wringing her hands, the eyes behind the mask quite apprehensive. Whatever she had to tell him, she was expecting him to be unpleased by it, he could tell. Then the shouts reached his ears, the shouts of the vicomte and Christine. Something was wrong. "Ah....Erik....I ah, have something to tell you. Well, ask you, really."  
  
"Yes? What is it Ayesha?" He asked, looking quite suspiciously at the window to the other room.  
  
"How do you...how do you turn down the temperature? And how do you open the door?"  
  
"You did WHAT??!" Erik roared, leaping out of the chair and once again tripping over his skirts as he got up. Oh hell, if he ever wanted back before, it was nothing compared to what he was feeling now. He had spent half his day on the ground already! Crawling swiftly to the network of buttons and levers, he hauled himself up and looked at them all. A slow dawning of understanding came over him, and he looked over his shoulder. "Ayesha, come here." He said calmly, still hoping that maybe she had been mistaken. When he felt her standing behind him, he looked over his shoulder and pointed. "Please, tell me which of these you touched."  
  
"I...this one..." She indicated the lever that had been pulled, tapping it lightly. The change on Erik's face was incredible, one minute he was collected, the next he was his demented raging self. Only, his rage didn't come out quite as he had planned it. For some unexplained reason, he was crying. "Erik, what's wrong?"  
  
"This is the absolute WORST form in the world. I can't believe this!" Erik shouted between sobs. "I'm not even in a mood to be crying, and....oh God, no wonder she sniffles and leaks all the time, it's like it can't be helped!"   
  
"But the lever?" Ayesha asked apprehensively.  
  
"There's no way out for them now, no way at all. Once that lever is pulled, the temperature begins to rise, and once it reaches a certain degree, then the door will open. But it will be too late, by then." He shook his head and peered in. They were sweating now. He tapped on the glass as hard as he could, to get someone's attention. The vicomte looked up and saw the white, bleeding, broken countenance of Christine and rushed over.  
  
"Christine!! What has he done to you? Christine, are you okay?" He shouted up, as loud as he could. "I'll rescue you, I will. Oh, the monster, he promised to let us out, but he just cruelly raised the temperature!" Raoul called, aware that she probably couldn't hear. The REAL Christine, from within the daroga's body, rolled her eyes. She supposed since he did not know the whole story he had his right to assumptions, but couldn't he leave Erik a wee bit of room, a margin of error? Not that he needed it, but was it always so fair to jump to conclusions. ~I've misjudged Erik myself, but it seems different when another is doing it.~ She thought before tapping Raoul on the shoulder.  
  
"Monsieur, do not judge Erik so harshly. Surely he has some flaws, but can he truly be condemned?"  
  
"You forgive him for his wrongs? For what he is doing to us now? My God, man, you forgive him for boiling us alive?"  
  
"Yes." She said simply, knowing that if she had replied, 'No, I forgive the cat for being caught in Erik's body and not knowing what lever to push to get us out', he would have thought her incredibly insane. "Yes, I do. He is not as bad as all that, for all his faults." ~He really isn't....~ She admitted to herself. Boy, she was beginning to get thirsty now.  
  
"Erik, listen to me, is there any other way to let them out? Anything you can think of?" Ayesha asked, almost in a panic. She raised her hand to her mouth and began nibbling on the nail.   
  
"Don't do that, I like my fingernails." Erik replied mildly, looking around, racking his brain for anything that might work. And then....he had it. "There is a release hatch that opens the door. A knob, but the other knob will flood the place. I don't want to flood it, but it's our only chance. Oh, I put those in so long ago I can't remember which one opens the cursed door." He began pacing, heading for the knobs. On the way he paused and peered in at the helpless people pacing the chamber. His eyes fell on Raoul, but strangely the white hot spear of jealousy did not lodge in his heart now when he looked at him. He didn't begrudge the boy anything now, because he hadn't just been around Christine, he had BEEN Christine, he WAS the girl, and now he had had his fill, and more. Another spill from the skirts and he'd go flipping insane.  
  
"Well, did you write it down someplace?" Ayesha asked, following him as he silently evaluated the knobs, one a scorpion, the other a grasshopper, which glittered mutely in the low light. Nadir, unable to contribute to the conversation, sat atop the table and lashed his tail in displeasure.   
  
"No, I didn't." Erik bit his lip as he deliberated, one hand smoothing the scorpion, and then moving to the grasshopper. One of them would open the door, the other might drown them all. Did he even think of a rhyme or a little identification to help him remember? No, he didn't! Nothing! Not even, G is for grasshopper as it glugs down the lake, or something stupid like that. Something, something.   
  
"Wait." Ayesha said suddenly, laying her hand on his arm. "I want to know something first."  
  
"Ayesha, they're dying in there!" Erik protested. "I have to think about this!"   
  
"They can stay a minute, Erik. Please, you never told me what YOU wished for. Maybe that could stop this all. I won't get mad, just tell me." Erik looked down, she would get mad, he knew it. And soon none of them would be alive to save Christine and that insufferable boy. It was partly his fault, the boy's. "Look at me." She said softly, trying to get him to look up.  
  
"I wished, I wished that I was the boy, the vicomte. I just wanted one day to be near Christine without feeling the intense wash of tenseness and pity that I do when she's with me. I got way more than I bargained for, I got enough of Christine to last me fifty lifetimes, and now I'm better. As I look at the boy even now, I don't feel the seething jealousy anymore. I got my wish, in a way. I don't have the fixation, I don't need her anymore."  
  
"Well, that's good. So it can just be you and me again, then?" She asked, still standing close to him. Nadir mrorrwed in protest, and she grinned at him. "Well, I suppose you can stay too." She said with a smile. At Erik's nod, she beamed. "Good! Though there's always something I've wanted to do, something cats can't really do at all." Curious, Erik blinked and looked up at her.  
  
"What's that, Ayesha?" He asked, watching her curiously. Instead of answering, she bent down and kissed Erik lightly on the forehead, wrapping her arms around him. It was the most incredibly weird sensation ever in his entire life, really. He was giving himself a kiss, but it wasn't him, it was his cat. He had never realized that she was even more deprived than himself, though he often found himself wondering whether she could talk. He closed his eyes to better analyze this weirdness, never in a million years did he think he'd be kissed, certainly not while in another body, or by his cat! But something began to feel different as time went on. Or felt like it went on. It all must have taken about forty seconds, at the maximum. It seemed an eternity that they stayed that way.   
  
"Erik?" A querulous voice asked him. His eyes flew open and he found that he was holding onto Christine, at least, he thought it was. She was within the circle of his arms and they were very very close. He looked down, was he himself? Yes, he was! It was so incredibly wonderful to be back!  
  
"Is it you, Christine?" He asked, almost in wonder of the whole thing. He was relieved that the corset was gone, that he could finally take in the required amount of air. And he didn't have six tons of hair plastered to his scalp anymore. Not to mention how good he felt, not scratched, not bruised. But boy, looking at her from the outside he had really beat Christine's body up today.  
  
"Yes," she said quietly, "it's me. Erik, I've done some thinking....and I'm sorry for the way I behaved to you. From the outside, it just seemed so hard, and I couldn't choose, and I know you love me so..." Looking at him, she reached up and gave him the second kiss he had received all night, removing his mask in the process and smiling as she pulled back. "And I realized that sometimes we can all be misunderstood." Erik was just amazed, flat out amazed. Anything else and he might keel over, ending it all. Christine was reconciling with him, she had even kissed him, without his mask! In spite of recent events, that still held a good precedence in his mind, made him smile to himself. But before he could speak to answer her, he felt something furry twined around his ankles, and he looked into the deep blue eyes of his cat. And he thought....  
  
"Christine, what made you change your mind so quickly?"  
  
"I had a revelation, I realized that sometimes people jump to too many conclusions without knowing the whole truth. And...I didn't know the truth before, I didn't suspect. It took a look outside myself to know, I want to stay and know more!!" Ayesha's blue eyes, for he was sure she had returned to her own self, seemed to stare up at him accusingly. And he remembered a snatch of conversation.  
  
~So it can be just you and me again?...~ She had asked, and he had answered.  
  
~I don't need her anymore...~ All Ayesha had ever wanted was to be more to him than an animal. He could see it in her eyes now, as she sat and looked at him. It was HIS choice to make, now. She gave a small little mrowr and rubbed her head against his ankle lovingly. He didn't need to be near Christine anymore, and now he knew how Ayesha felt, he knew it. It was time to make his choice.  
  
"It's been a long day Christine. I want you to have a safe, free life. You want to know more now, but what about when this wears off, when it seems like a long, horrid dream?" He asked, spreading his hands wide. She was still holding on to his shoulders, and her face fell a little. "You can come back, if you like, anytime. Just...just promise me you'll go with him, people would wonder. He's....he's not so bad." ~It almost makes me ill to say that. But it makes me even more ill to look at those skirts...~ "My God! I forgot about them!" He suddenly exclaimed, turning back to the scorpion and the grasshopper. Puzzled and very put out, Christine followed his attention.  
  
"What are these, Erik?" She asked, absently turning the grasshopper in contemplation. "Faucets? Hmm...don't turn anything on." A sudden noise echoed through the halls as the lake began to flood.   
  
"Damn, it's going to flood the torture chamber. Well, they'll be out soon enough, the window hatch will be activated. We just have to wait." Erik murmured, looking at Christine wonderingly. "Do you want to get cleaned up in the meantime? Perhaps..."  
  
"I'd rather wait for them, if that's okay." At his nod, she sighed in relief and touched her forehead absently. "Erik, why did you give me such a horrendous headache?"  
  
"Christine," Erik answered, hearing the wet slap of the recently evacuated torture chamber victims, "wear shorter dresses and it won't happen ever again."  
  
  
  
~*~  
  
Epilogue....  
  
  
"Nadir," Erik remarked thoughtfully as they sat around the small coffee table in the dining room, "how did you know about the boy? How did you know he would...help us?"  
  
"I didn't." Nadir replied simply, sipping the tea and smiling lightly. "It was a mere guess on my part. I had heard you whispering about the boy and how much you despised him, and I didn't know how exactly he fit into the puzzle, but it seemed to work."  
  
"Indeed. Well, when I laid eyes on him I realized I didn't want his life, and I didn't need to be someone else. If ever I have a desire to be someone else, I'll remember this. Being a woman can be awful sometimes. But it does have its good points..."  
  
"Which are?"  
  
"Well, I was able to scream louder, for one, and I got away with slapping someone, for another. But that's about all I can think of at the moment." A heavy weight suddenly landed on him as Ayesha leapt into his lap and curled happily, securely. She began to purr and Erik smiled indulgently. "No, I'll never leave you be, Ayesha. Oh, and another question, Nadir." Erik asked with a congenial laugh as he himself drank down his cup.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Why in heaven's name did you scratch me?"  
  
"I didn't know it was you, and then when you called me darling and tried to pick me up, I got scared. Christine Daae is a big scary giant to a little cat. Plus, you were soaking and I didn't want to get my fur wet. Being a cat can be terrifying." He looked at Ayesha, lolling and kneading her claws into Erik's knee possessively, and grinned. "But it does have its upside as well."  
  
"Yes, yes it does. And she wouldn't let us forget it for the world." Erik remarked, petting the cat and letting his fingers itch behind her ears. Twisting her head just a little bit to look him square in the eye, Ayesha's blue regard seemed to affirm that thought as she slowly and happily began to purr.  
  
  
  
THE END.  
  
  
A/N: Yay! Another story completed! I hope everyone liked it, please leave your name, number, and mailing address in case I decide to send you a nice, stingy surprise. I think it's going to lay eggs, dear God. Anyone want a scorpion, huh? C'mon...you don't have to walk 'em...oh, never mind. (grumbles and marches off to start her next story) 


End file.
